Anaphore Announces Name Change to RuiYi and New Additions to Shanghai Management Team

LA JOLLA, Calif. and SHANGHAI, Oct. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Anaphore announced today that its corporate name has changed to RuiYi.  As part of the company's shift in strategy to the discovery and development of novel biologic therapies in China, including monoclonal antibodies that target G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), RuiYi has also added three seasoned leaders to its management team in Shanghai.

"RuiYi's new direction will enable us to focus on building our capabilities in Shanghai as we collaborate with a number of innovative drug discovery and development companies to advance our technology," commented Paul Grayson, President and CEO of RuiYi.

New RuiYi Drug Discovery Team

RuiYi also announced today that it has added three key members to its management team to guide its GPCR drug discovery efforts.  Chris Song, Ph.D., joins as Director of Operations, Shouhua (Josh) Xiao, Ph.D., joins as Senior Director of Protein Technology and Lei Shi, Ph.D., joins as Director of Antibody Discovery.

"Chris, Josh and Lei are all exceptionally talented individuals with extensive industry experience that is essential as we continue building a truly outstanding biologics drug discovery company in Shanghai," commented Anke Kretz-Rommel, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Development, RuiYi.

Dr. Song has more than 20 years of experience in biomedical research and business. Prior to joining RuiYi, he led marketing and sales efforts at OriGene Technologies for its China business initiative. Before OriGene, Chris was with Applied Biosystems China, driving business growth in the pharmaceutical/biotech sector. He also held the position of Business Development Manager at Novartis China, developing business strategy and leading licensing activities for the Oncology Business. Dr. Song received his M.B.A from Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Oncology from the University of Queensland, Australia and a B.Sc from Shandong University, China.

Dr. Xiao has worked in the biotech industry for over 14 years. Prior to joining RuiYi, he was Principal Scientist and led the biologics drug discovery efforts for Oncology at Amgen South San Francisco. Prior to Amgen, he managed the HTS/Molecular Pharmacology group at Tularik and previously worked at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Xiao obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Louisiana State University and conducted his postdoctoral training with Dr. James Manley at Columbia University. He currently serves as Co-chair of the 2011-2012 EC Business & Career Development Committee of the Chinese-American BioPharmaceutical Society.

Dr. Shi joins RuiYi from Centyrex, an internal venture of Johnson & Johnson, where he was responsible for library technology development and lead generation in the area of immunology and oncology. Prior to Centyrex, Dr. Shi was a Senior Research Scientist at Centocor R&D of Johnson and Johnson, where he led a project on developing and validating large scale de novo antibody library technology on a novel phage display platform and was the leading author on the publication and patent on this effort.  Before his career in the biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Shi conducted his postdoctoral research on innate immunology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University of Illinois at Chicago and an Executive Master's degree in Technology Management from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business.

New RuiYi Corporate Headquarters

RuiYi is moving its corporate offices to new space in La Jolla, CA.  Effective November 15, 2012, RuiYi's California-based office will be at:  505 Coast Blvd South, La Jolla, CA 92037.

About RuiYi

RuiYi is focused on the discovery and development of novel biologic therapies in China, including monoclonal antibodies that target G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).  RuiYi's executive management team has offices in La Jolla, California while all of RuiYi's discovery efforts are located in Shanghai, China.  RuiYi's research facility is located in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Pudong Shanghai, China.

For more information please visit www.ruiyibio.com.

SOURCE RuiYi